, 1887-02-20
BILL ARP'S JOURNEY.
GOING HOME FROM THE WAR WITH
TIP AND THE WAGON.

MISUNDERSTANDING tho Etowah-Nirh,
in an Abandoned School Hon,e-uom,
Again.
About the close of the year, twenty-five
years ago, we made preparations to GO
nome. We loaded a covered wagon with
our goods and chattels and some meat md
meal and a supply of corn and fodder, and
two or three cooking utensils, and a coffee
pot, and some coffee made of rye and goob-
ers and sweet potatoes parched and mixed.
some sorghum syrup, a puppy dog and a
gun or two well loaded, and a fow other
primitive tricks, and felt amazing rich that
we had so much to begin the world with
SO much that others did not have.
Our oldest boy was then about 10, and
had sense and seH reliance like a man, for he
had been with me in the army in Virginia,
and had been bumped around smartly. and
was used to trouble. 50 we started him
and our faithful friend Tip with the COW
cred wagon and team, and We followed after
In u one horse rockaway. There were only
seven children then and hone to spare. Tho
weather was cold and the roads In an awful
condition, for they had not been worked
In 1 year OF two, and we had to cut our
way around the fallen trees and patch up
the little bridges and make haste slowly, but
we we're going home, and that inspired us to
encounter everything. We got along
pretty well the first day and night, but on
the second day, as we neared tho Etowah
river, we struck that desolate and deserted
country known as Sherman's belt-that
same Sherman "who was so careless about
FIRE" Steele's bridge was ahead of us and
was said to be the only one left. The fer
ries were all abandoned and the boats
gone, so we pressed forward to the bridge,
and as we mounted the hill that overlooked
it we were surprised to see our boy and Tip
and some other refugees carrying plank
from an clubhouse to the bridge. The floor
was gone and they were contriving a way
TO get the wagons across. They picked up
enough plank Of one sort or another to Law
two rows lengthways across the bridge. a
row for the wheels on each side of the
wagon. 1t was slow work and perilous work
to put the plank down on the open sleepers,
but they did it, and then carefully pulled
II pushed the wagons across. The surging
waters, away down among the rocks some
forty feet below, had no terrors to exiles
going home. After getting the vehicles
across the bridge the horses and mules were
swum across the river a short distance be-
low, and all were safely landed on the home
ward side.
The dark and dismal night caught us us
we neared an old shell Of a school house by
the way, and so we halted and took posses
sion and built up a rousing fire in the old
log built fireplace. The house had been used
for a~nybody's stable, but we cleaned up a
corner n scattered the myriads of heas
around and put them In circulation, and then
spread down an old quilt and put a bed upon
it and fixed up the mother and her babies
pretty well considering that this was war.
An old log stable was near by and 1t had
a long, old fashioned feed trough that was
made of half of a hollow log. We put our
stock in the stable and fed them in one end OF
the trough and our big boy slept in the
other end with his gun by his side. Tip kept
up the fire all night and it shone brightly
through the big cracks, and kept the stable
and the wagon in sight. Mules and horses
were precious then--more precious thar
gold. By daylight Tip was cooking break
fast and making our coffee, and it did not
take long to make our morning toilet, We
had to get some water from a branch near
by and wash our faces, and that WIS all.
The sun didn't rise that day and the mist
and the clouds were thick and heavy. We
were soon all aboard and expected to reach
Rome and home by night. The road was
billy and rough and grew almost impassa-
BILE as we got into the dark chocolate lands
OF Barlow. All the day long we looked
and longed to see some living thing-a
man, a boy, a negro, a dog, a hog, a bird
anything to break the spell OF utter desola- |
ton. There was nothing animate except
the buzzards that now and then took their |
heavy flight from some carcass by the way. |
There was hardly a house left-none that
were occupied. No cattle or sheep, no roos-
ter to crow, or dog to bark.
Night-dark-overtook us five miles from
Rome, and those five miles are a horror to
me now. think 1 grew older that night
by a year at least, perhaps five. The road
could not be seen, and some of the gullies |
were fearful But Tip and our boy never |
faltered nor wilted. Sometimes when the |
team seemed reluctant they would stop and |
one go ahead and explore and then try it
again. Fences are sometimes a glimmering
guide in tho darkness, but there were no
fences. We had not seen one all the day.
When we reached the suburbs of town
the mule team came square up against q
fallen tree, and on exploring there were sew
eral In the way, for it was an abandoned
and the trees had been cut down for
fire wood. It took us an hour to turn
round and find another route. It seemed
to me then that we spent half a night right
there hunting for a way. But at last we
into the town-the town where street
lamps used to burn and a thousand well
lights were in the windows OF happy
homes Now all was dark and lonesome
and as silent as the grave. By 10 O'Clock
we were in front Of a kinsmnn's house, and
n glimmering light shone through the cur
tanned window lattice. Oh, happy mo-
relief. l actually felt weak
from the reaction that followed from the
long and intense anxiety.
No wonder that the doors were locked and
barred, and the light kept dimly burning.
War is horrible enough, but the absence
of all law and all restraint is worse, for the
weak and defenseless are then at the mercy
OF the strong. OF course, we found our
dwelling sacked and Quilted OF its furniture.
We left it full and found 1t a skeleton; in
deed, the whole town was a skeleton. A
good portisn had been destroyed by the very
able man who was so careless about fire,
and what was left was empty. Even tho
CHURCHES were empty-not a pew nor "A seat
left. My own house had been used as head
quarters, and tho telegraph wire was still
hanging in the parlor. There was not n pal,
Ing nor plank nrouud the PREMISE. There
was q new stable about sixty feet long for
the horses Of the general and his staff, and
the troughs were mnde OF the lems OF the
We moved into our house and called it
home. We borrowed some beds and bed
ding and Il chair or two from Kind neigh /
bors aud settled dow ] Ind nn. Con-
federate money. but it wouldn'i anch.
| gave $1,000 for IA chunk OF acl only
ono ] could hear Of that was ici "a the
brought ten busici- 1t corn
down thv river and kept 1t hid out from the
scouts nnd outlaws, but they got hail OF IL,
anyhow. We lived through the winter